


salt is an overrated flavor

by ancient and ruined (bean5)



Category: Food Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Lowercase, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Second Person, Panic Attacks, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24918838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bean5/pseuds/ancient%20and%20ruined
Summary: you’ve been pretty well behaved, you think, for a cooking attendant who wants to be anything but. the only interactions you’ve had with the chef’s guild are monthly reports and the pile of contracts they sent your way to sign after you bought the restaurant.this is my job, you remind yourself. i am a cooking attendant under the chef’s guild. i work with food souls to serve the people of parisel.-(please read tags)probably will not update regularly, sorryhere's the fic you were promised, sm
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Kudos: 7





	salt is an overrated flavor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [melodeon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/melodeon/gifts).



only you are awake at this hour. it is much too late (early?) for anyone to be awake, after all. you know three a.m. isn’t a good time to be awake, but the tossing, turning and general unrest you feel while trying to sleep can only be called insomnia. why, you think, must i suffer like this on a sunday - or rather, a monday - when your humble restaurant is to open in a few hours. you need to sleep. somehow, you’re the only one in the restaurant that can’t grasp a concept so simple.

might as well get some work done here while i’m up, you think, grabbing a bowl from a cabinet. you continue to grab ingredients for your restaurant’s specialty dish. since it is technically monday, you can still legally sell these. you think. actually, you’re not sure, but the chef’s guild must have bigger problems to deal with than you selling half-a-day-old dishes. you’ve been pretty well behaved, you think, for a cooking attendant who wants to be anything but. the only interactions you’ve had with the chef’s guild are monthly reports and the pile of contracts they sent your way to sign after you bought the restaurant.

this is my job, you remind yourself. i am a cooking attendant under the chef’s guild. i work with food souls to serve the people of parisel. 

you almost drop your spatula on the floor when the banging starts. fallen angels, probably. this town has its fair share of them. fortunately for you, you don’t fear death. you simply steady yourself and look for the sugar.

the banging is starting to grow obnoxious. you groan, annoyed at being disturbed, and push a table against the door - just in case. you wouldn’t want to wake the food souls, after all - never mind the fact that _you are their master, you own them, they are your food souls, your servants._ supposedly. to you, it seems more that they control you. after all, your life is literally dependent upon their willingness to serve. it’s not fair, you think. no species should serve another, although the human race would go extinct if the food souls weren’t so obedient. you vowed you would take every opportunity to treat them like equals.

“Master Attendant? Why are you awake so early?” you turn towards the stairs. black tea stands, fully dressed, guns in her thigh holsters. you tear your gaze away to meet her eyes. she’s not smiling, as usual. you two never talked before, but you could tell she had the discipline of a soldier with the way she carried herself: chin tipped up, shoulders pulled back, eyes glinting with muted pride. with the way she handled herself against fallen angels, she was easily the best at combat out of the food souls in your restaurant.

“i just wanted to start work early,” you reply, for lack of something better to say. black tea doesn’t buy it, but she doesn’t pry, either. she simply strides towards the door, pushing the table aside. 

“I will deal with the Fallen Angel. Please lock the doors behind me, Master Attendant,” she calls, undoing the heavy bolt. you call after her; don’t go, it’s okay, it wasn’t bothering me at all.

“Don’t worry about me, Master Attendant. I intend to be quick.” and then she’s gone, and you’re left with no choice but to do up the bolt again. shit. you should have gone with her. those cooking points you had earned from almost two months’ worth of running the restaurant had been enough to buy a seasoning and a straight chop talent from the guild. those might have made a difference, but you had only stood there like an idiot and let someone sacrifice themselves for your safety. again.

you sink into a chair, the specialty dish forgotten in the moment. black tea is strong, she can handle a fallen angel, you think. it’s probably nothing larger than a bulimia, anyway. black tea has fought worse. in that battle, you would have only gotten in the way, it was better to stay inside and watch the restaurant.

you were making the right choice.

it’s much too long before a gentle rapping on the door rouses you from your thoughts. you quickly fumble with that confounded lock and throw the doors back. the wind bites through your sweater, you notice dully as you shut the doors and guide black tea to your chair. she’s mostly unharmed, but there’s a nasty gash above her knee that had her limping into the door.

“I am sorry I took so long, Master Attendant. Next time, I will defeat the enemy in a more timely manner.” there she goes again, thinking only of you. you’re starting to get very tired of food souls serving you.

“please, don’t apologize, black tea. i never- no one ever asked you to fight that fallen angel on your own. you did more than enough.” your arms started to itch, and you refrained from scratching them. you had been told many times that your little nervous habit was bad for your skin, but habits weren’t as easy to break as they assumed. “i’m going to go get milk.” 

you turned towards the staircase, but black tea grabbed your arm. “Please do not wake Milk. I am more than capable of cleaning and bandaging the wound myself.” she paused. “I do not want to ask you to do more, Master Attendant, but if you could fetch the bandages and alcohol for me, that would not be unwelcome.”

you tried not to salute her, feeling more than a little humiliated. the storage closet door creaked as you opened it. grabbing bandages and alcohol, you made your way back to black tea. 

“Thank you, Master Attendant. I can handle myself from here.” she reached out to take the bandages, but you pulled them out of her reach. she looked up at you, an eyebrow raised. “What is the matter?”

“i’ll do this part, black tea. besides, it will be hard to bandage properly on your own.” 

you didn’t really know if it would be hard to bandage, but it didn’t matter. black tea didn’t speak, but her eyes softened as she hitched her skirts up for you to better reach the wound. it was rather deep, and would hurt her as she walked. as you poured alcohol onto a cloth, you made a mental note not to let black tea on any missions while this wound healed. 

“this may sting a little,” you warned her, then pressed the cloth onto the wound. you definitely didn’t miss the way black tea flinched ever so slightly.

“I am familiar with the concept of alcohol,” she deadpanned. was that humor? from black tea? well, you guessed all kinds of weird things happened at three a.m.

“why were you awake at this hour, anyway?” you asked.

she tensed. “I was going to complete my morning training, but I decided to eliminate that fallen angel instead. It seemed to be bothering the restaurant, and I only wanted to fulfill my duties.”

“you train at three a.m?” you never even realized that she trained so early. what kind of master attendant were you? 

“I like to get in some training before the day starts. Starting at three lets me train for two hours, then I must go back to bed to recover a little before the restaurant opens,” she explained. you marveled at her dedication to her craft, and all the thought she put behind it. her day was structured with two sessions of rigorous training, yet she never complained or chose an easier mission. she was truly strong, and all she wanted was to use her strength for you.

you hated that last part, honestly. 

“..are these too tight?” you asked, as you wrapped her thigh with the bandages. you tried to focus solely on the task at hand, but it was difficult when you were wrapping bandages around _black tea’s thighs_ , for god’s sake. 

“No, they are fine,” she said as she stood, testing her weight on her injured leg. her neutral expression didn’t waver, even though walking must’ve hurt. “I am sorry for inconveniencing you, Master Attendant. I shall take care of the cooking from here. You should go back to bed, for it is important to get enough rest.”

you had completely forgotten the unfinished dish. luckily, all you had done was get out ingredients. “actually, i’ll just wait until later to start,” you said, putting the ingredients back into the pantry. the whole occurrence had left you tired, and black tea certainly needed to rest. “but first, let me help you upstairs.” black tea looked like she was about to protest, so you added, “that’s an order.”

whatever she was going to say died on her lips, and she simply nodded. you slipped underneath her arm and tried your best to take weight off of her leg as the two of you made your way up the stairs to the living quarters. black tea’s room was on the right, and the doorknob turned easily. you lowered her onto the bed.

“i’m not letting you work tomorrow,” you said. “just sleep in as long as you want.”

“I’m afraid I am too well disciplined to sleep past seven-” she was cut off by a blood-curdling shriek from outside. you whipped your head around towards the window. it was shuttered and locked, as all the windows were, but you were sure there was something there- could it be the same one?

“no, no it couldn’t.” no, that was too long ago, there was no way it was still alive, you had killed that one. the shrieking started again- no, no, no no no no no-

“Master Attendant?” black tea put her hands on your shoulders.

“no- no-” you shoved her away frantically. dimly, you heard the door creak open. 

“Master Attendant!” something was wrapping itself around you, and you tried to tear it away, but you met only air. “Master Attendant, that is only my magic, please try to calm down.” you only started to shake faster at her words. there was no way, not again- you had stood in front of that thundaruda’s rotting corpse for almost two days, it was dead, it was dead-

“I don’t think they’re taking the magic well...Master Attendant?” the thing wrapped around your soul started to shift, warming to your own magic. you thought you heard someone singing. it seemed to calm you down; your breathing began to relax. you became aware of how exhausted you were, and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> oh yeah i wrote this kinda late so its angsty  
> also i'm pretty sure i'm writing panic attacks wrong  
> about the lowercase: master attendant's thoughts/narration/speech is lowercase, other character's speech is in normal case (is that what you call it?)  
> anyway i'm still writing i'll edit this if i give up lol


End file.
